CASTING OUT MALEVOLENT SPIRITS

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You clean the outside of the cup and dish,

But inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

O blind Pharisees,

First clean the inside of the cup and dish,

And then the outside will be clean!

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside,

But on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.

16. Malevolent spirits can be found only where they have a chance to satisfy their desires. To keep them at bay, it isn’t enough simply to ask them to go away, nor even to order them to go. It is essential that we first eliminate in ourselves whatever it is in us that is attracting them. Malevolent spirits discover wounds of the soul in the same way that flies detect wounds on the body.

And so, just as you wash your wounds to prevent infestation of maggots, clean your soul of its impurities to avoid malevolent spirits. We live in a world teeming with such spirits, and the qualities in our hearts may not be sufficient against their attempts on us, but whatever good qualities we have will help us to resist their attempts against us.